A level Economics Spec A
August 2023 Economics update
28 July 2023
Welcome to this August 2023 update!
The main focus of this update relates to analysing exam results and the post-results services which are available.
You are also invited to read the 2023 School Report, provide feedback on the 2023 exams, and, the update concludes with news about our four Economics qualifications.
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 17 August | Results Day for A level and IAL |
| 22 August | Examiners' reports released (AL, IAL) |
| 24 August | Results Day for International GCSE |
| 29 August | Examiners' reports released (International GCSE) |
On 19 June 2023 we wrote to all registered Edexcel Online account holders, advising that we had introduced Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) as an additional layer of security to help protect your centre and learner data. While a lot of users have now accessed Edexcel Online (EOL) and successfully gone through the MFA process, we are aware that other roles may not use EOL and other related systems on a regular basis, and the next time to try and log in is on a learner results day.
To make your results days as easy as possible, if you are a user that will need to access any of the following systems during the summer results period, please log into these now to check you can access them successfully:
- Edexcel Online (EOL)
- ResultsPlus
- Exam Viewer
Additional support for Multi-Factor Authentication can be found in our customer support article Accessing Pearson Services Using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). We also have these trouble shooting steps.
You may wish to check your access rights in your Edexcel Online account so that you can access the information you need on results days.
Results files and their contents are confidential to the Head of Centre, examinations office staff and senior members of the teaching staff at the centre. Therefore, the Edexcel Online ‘Results’ profile is only granted to these roles, as it allows access to results files on the Wednesdays before results days.
Other teachers that need access to view results should be given ResultsPlus access, as this is designed to meet the needs of teachers to view and analyse the results for their own students. Results are available through ResultsPlus for teachers on the Thursday results days.
You may also wish to ask your Exams Officer to tick 'Exam viewer' in your Edexcel Online profile in case you want to download candidate scripts from results day (having obtained the candidates' consent first).
ResultsPlus is an online results analysis tool that gives you a detailed breakdown of your students’ performance in Pearson Edexcel exams.
ResultsPlus provides detailed analysis of your learners' performance and will help you to identify potential topics, skills and types of questions where students may need to develop their learning further. You may find it helpful to understand how your students’ performance compares with class and Pearson Edexcel national averages and to gather some insight data that may support effective teaching and learning approaches.
We’ve also got our ResultsPlus Group Analysis service. Developed to support multi-academy trusts and groups of schools, this service can provide senior leaders with a clear overall picture of student performance across all their schools in Pearson Edexcel exams and BTEC external assessments, and can also be used to analyse your mock exam results, making this service a valuable tool for use throughout the academic year.
We need to set up a separate account for your multi-academy trust or group of schools, even if your own school is already set up with a ResultsPlus account. This is something which we would need to have done before results day.
Ofqual has published: 'Exam results 2023: 10 things to know about GCSE, AS and A level grades'.
On Results Day, you may wish to find the 2023 grade boundaries for your subject on our Grade Boundaries page.
For A level Economics A and Economics B, the maximum mark is 335 as this reflects the different weightings of the three A level papers. All three papers are out of 100 but Papers 1 and 2 have a 35% weighting whereas Paper 3 has a 30% weighting. This means that the marks you see are adjusted marks and not raw marks.
The conversion works by multiplying Paper 1 and 2 marks by 1.1725 and the Paper 3 mark by 1.005.
If you would like to see the cumulative percentage of candidates at each grade boundary as a percentage of the total cohort, you will need to visit the Grade Statistics Page.
The Access to Scripts service allows you to view your candidates’ marked scripts online or download as PDFs, providing transparency of marking and to help you make decisions around requests for reviews of marking and inform future teaching and learning.
The Access to Scripts service provides a rich source of information, enabling detailed analysis to inform teaching and learning and support students and giving insights and visibility that performance data alone cannot provide.
The portal can only be accessed by Edexcel Online users who have the 'Exam Viewer' profile ticked on Edexcel Online. Your exams officer gives teachers access to 'Exam Viewer'.
Please note that these scripts do not contain examiners' annotations.
If scripts have been marked 'traditionally' (i.e. not online), you will need to request them, free of charge, by the published deadline, via the Post Results section of Edexcel Online as in previous exam series.
Access To Scripts via Script Viewer is available from Results Day until 15 December 2023.
Candidate consent is required before requesting script copies, as per section 6.2.1 of the JCQ's Post-Results Services guide. Candidate consent can only be obtained after results have been published.
Candidate consent forms can be found in Appendix B of the JCQ Post results Services document.
Review of marking of externally assessed components (Service 2)
This is a check that our examiners have marked externally assessed components correctly and includes:
- a clerical check (Service 1)
- a review of marking of units/components by a senior examiner
You can ask us to review the marking of exam papers for individual candidates and the results for each candidate will be reported separately. This service isn't available for internally assessed/externally moderated coursework components.
Candidates’ marks or grades can go up, down or stay the same.
The deadline for completion is within 20 calendar days of receiving the request.
To get a copy of the reviewed exam paper, you should request an Access to Script (ATS) service at the same time as submitting the Service P2 request. There is a fee for this additional service.
The deadline for us to receive your request for a review of marking is 28 September.
Centres must obtain written candidate consent for clerical re-checks and
reviews of marking, as with these services candidates’ marks and subject grades
may be lowered. Candidate consent must be obtained after the publication of results.
Candidates must be informed that their marks and subject grades could go
down as well as up and must provide their written consent before a request is
submitted. (A suggested form for centres to use is included as Appendix A of the JCQ Post-results Guide).
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of a review of marking, you may wish to appeal against the decision. We will allow the head of centre (or designated member of the centre’s senior management team or examinations manager) 30 calendar days from the receipt of the outcome of the review of marking, during which an appeal may be lodged by sending an email to the following address: edexcelappeals@pearson.com. There is further guidance on appeals on our website.
Applications for appeals may only be accepted from a head of centre (on behalf of a candidate or a group of candidates) or private candidates. See the JCQ appeals booklet, 46 & 47.
The Pearson School Report 2023
The brand-new Pearson School Report explores education in England and how educators are pioneering change in 2023.
Featuring the views of 6,000+ teachers and 1,000 students, the report shares experiences from both sides of the school desks and invaluable insights on:
- challenges and opportunities facing schools
- sustainability and climate education
- digital innovation – the positives, possibilities and problems to solve
- diversity, equity and inclusion.
You can read the report online (link below) and have your say on social media via #PearsonSchoolReport.
To enable us to improve the experience of teachers using our qualifications and students sitting our exams, we gather feedback after each exam series. If you're a teacher, and your students have taken any of our exams in the May/June 2023 series we want to know what you liked or didn't like in this year's exam papers. We'll share your feedback with our senior examiners and across teams to ensure we continue to make improvements to our papers where appropriate so we can make sure your students have the best exam experience. Please complete our surveys and have your say. Thank you.
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources from Pearson
- paid-for resources from Hodder
- other paid-for resources
For help with:
- recorded feedback training
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
FT articles and tasks picked by a panel of teacher advisers to help improve study, exam and interview success, with suggestions on questions for class activities and discussion.
Recent articles:
- Video: water investment - When water security runs dry
- Cartels: Saudi Arabia seeks to boost oil price with output cut of 1mn barrels a day
- Demand and supply: Why Britain’s households should expect energy bills to remain high
- Labour markets: UK haulage industry forced to train army of homegrown drivers to cope with Brexit
The Economics Factory now has digital versions of the Anforme A level Economics A books
Hyman Minsky
The 3 June podcast looks at the life of Hyman Minsky - one of the few economists with a theoretical framework which could explain the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. (Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis is considered in this podcast)
Useful for Section 4.4 (The Financial Sector) of the specification.
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources
For help with:
- recorded feedback training
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
FT articles and tasks picked by a panel of teacher advisers to help improve study, exam and interview success, with suggestions on questions for class activities and discussion.
Recent articles:
- Video: water investment - When water security runs dry
- Cartels: Saudi Arabia seeks to boost oil price with output cut of 1mn barrels a day
- Demand and supply: Why Britain’s households should expect energy bills to remain high
- Labour markets: UK haulage industry forced to train army of homegrown drivers to cope with Brexit
Hyman Minsky
The 3 June podcast looks at the life of Hyman Minsky - one of the few economists with a theoretical framework which could explain the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. (Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis is considered in this podcast)
Useful for Section 4.5 (Risk and the financial sector) of the specification.
The Economics Factory now has digital versions of the Anforme A level Economics B books
For help with:
- free support and networking
- IAL university recognition
- free resources
- paid-for resources
For help with:
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
This online training is designed for teachers who are new to delivering the International Advanced level Economics specification.
Module 1 focuses on teaching the course and will give you an understanding of the content of the qualification and how to cover it, course/lesson planning, understanding the assessment and preparing students for it, and a brief overview of support from Pearson available to teachers.
Module 2 will give you an understanding of how the content is assessed by reviewing the assessment objectives and mark schemes, practise applying the mark schemes using exemplar student work, as well as an understanding of how marks were determined.
In Module 1, delegates will:
- Be given an understanding of the assessment objectives
- Analyse recent question papers and learn which types of question match the different assessment objectives
- Consider how the level based questions are marked, using mark schemes and sample student responses
In Module 2, delegates will:
- Be given an understanding of the structure of the course and assessment and an overview of the assessment objectives
- Consider how the points-based questions are marked, using mark schemes and sample student responses
Both modules will:
- Discuss strategies for teaching the IAL Economics course by networking and discussing best practice and sharing ideas with other teachers
- Review the support Pearson offers for the qualification
The entry deadline is 28 August 2023.
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources
For help with:
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
International GCSE Economics will have the first onscreen assessment available from 2024.
Make sure you’re signed up for the latest onscreen assessment news to find out how to register your school.
International GCSE Economics is in the first group of subjects to make a modular route available to learners from September 2023.
This means that we will have both a modular and a linear route to achieve this qualification.
If you are happy with the linear approach, there is no need to move to the modular route; our linear International GCSEs will continue to be offered and taken widely by learners around the world.
However, if you believe the modular route will be of benefit to your learners, this will be available from September 2023 with the first exams in May/June 2024.
International GCSE Economics: Welcome to Pearson
This online training is designed for teachers who are new to delivering the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Economics specification.
This training will give you an understanding of the content of the qualification and how to cover it, course/lesson planning, understanding the assessment and preparing students for it, and a brief overview of support from Pearson available to teachers.
Understanding assessment and improving delivery in International GCSE Economics
This online training is designed for teachers who are delivering the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Economics specification.
This training will give you an understanding of how assessments are structured for the qualification and how your teaching can be adapted to help your students’ performance on examination papers. The training is comprised of two 'standalone' modules which are booked separately.
We're introducing a regular International GCSE November series, first running in November 2023. The November series is being introduced to best meet the needs of students requiring International GCSE exam opportunities outside of the full May/June series, and it will replace the existing January series from 2024. This will result in just May/June and November series going forward for International GCSE.
Why are we moving to a November exam series?
Due to the pandemic, circumstances meant that we needed to follow a November International GCSE exam series in 2020, 2021 and 2022. As the November series seemed to be well received, we consulted schools to understand whether there was a preference for a permanent November exam series or reverting to January.
November was the preferred option for most schools; not just for resits, but also for learners studying on a January–December academic year.
Please take a look at the November 2023 timetable below.
The entry deadline for the November 2023 International GCSE series is 15 September 2023.
Subject advisor
Colin Leith
Economics
Email :
Phone :
+44 (0) 344 463 2535
(Teaching Services team | Mon-Fri, 9am - 5pm GMT)
